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Arab News
18-04-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Pakistani supply chain fintech aims to carve out beachhead in Saudi Arabia within 12 months
KARACHI: Pakistani supply chain fintech firm Haball will raise funds to expand its business into Saudi Arabia and set up a beachhead operation within the next 12 months, its chief executive officer Omer Bin Ahsan said in an interview this week. Haball announced this month it had raised $52 million to expand its Shariah-compliant supply chain financing and payments services. The funding, led by Zayn VC and Meezan Bank, includes $5 million in equity and $47 million in strategic financing, and will support Haball's growth plans for Pakistan and expansion into the Middle East, starting with Saudi Arabia this year. Haball says it provides Shariah-compliant financing to nearly 8,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as up to 70 multinationals, in addition to digital invoicing, payment collection and tax compliance services. The company has processed over $3 billion in payments and disbursed more than $140 million in financing. Habal is now eying 'complex large economies' like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Turkiye and Egypt to expand its digital supply chain invoicing, payments and financing business as Pakistan's economy stabilizes, with interest rates halving to 12 percent since June and the pace of inflation ebbing last month to a record low of 0.7 percent. 'In the next twelve months, we intend to set up a beachhead operation in Saudi because Saudi is also very nascent in terms of supply chain financing,' Ahsan, who has already made several trips to the Kingdom to secure necessary regulatory permissions, told Arab News in a wide-ranging interview. A beachhead refers to a strategic approach where a company initially focuses on a small, specific market segment, the beachhead, to establish a strong foothold before expanding to broader markets. Having a beachhead operation would enable Haball to understand the market dynamics and the credit culture in Saudi Arabia and allow it to anchor with strong partner banks, large corporations and wholesale distributors who would be the beneficiaries of the platform, Ahsan said. 'Using that commercial operation at a pilot level, then we will be able to scale into a wider play, SMEs financing, business-to-business payments, and obviously the ultimate goal of any large fintech is that, when they are into invoice payments or digital payments or financing, to see how we can get into the investment and treasury function of SME banking,' the CEO added. To expand into Saudi Arabia, Ahsan said the company would have to raise an amount that fit into the costing dynamics and expense outlay of the Kingdom. Haball would also be deploying its technology and the lower-production-cost regime it had built over years in Pakistan to support its operations in Saudi Arabia instead of raising huge amounts of funds. 'The funding requirement would have to be very prudent and would have to be staged in different phases as opposed to raising a large round and making an unnecessary splash that in most cases goes against you,' Ahsan said, declining to disclose the size of the funding as it could impede investor conversations. Speaking about reasons for wanting to enter Saudi Arabia, the Haball CEO said it was a mature market in terms of credit culture, but SME and supply chain financing still remained 'underserved.' 'Looking at Saudi Arabia's GDP and the non-oil component of the GDP [approximately 52 percent] and then trimming it down to the supply chains that serve the large manufacturer, retail, wholesale, all of that, it's of a significant size … perhaps parallel or comparable to the size of the total economy of Pakistan. So that's a very good opportunity for a company such as ours to enter that space.' Ahsan said the company was also eyeing the Saudi market as it was 'Shariah-first.' 'And that product that we've built for supply chain financing is indigenously Islamic with multiple Islamic variants.' The company was in general eyeing 'complex economies' with large populations and wide geography for a large distribution operation 'because that's where digital supply chain financing is very meaningful.' 'So countries like Saudi Arabia, countries like Turkiye, countries like Iraq, countries like Egypt, they're important for us as jurisdictions where this product can have a meaningful impact.' The game plan was to enter into Gulf markets where the prevailing Islamic finance ecosystem and private debt market was mainly led by big banks. 'The agility of deploying supply chain financing is where the fintechs come in. Our disbursement times are three seconds, not three days,' he said, terming it a 'big advantage' for Haball which would aim for 100 percent digitization into the integrated supply chains of Gulf markets to ensure rapid deployment of Islamic finance. 'Rapid deployment is the differentiator between us and any traditional institution,' said the CEO. 'CONTINUITY OF POLICY' Supply chain finance in Pakistan is nascent but is expected to be worth over $9 billion, driven by the severe financing gap faced by the country's SMEs, less than 5 percent of which can access financing from commercial banks. Habal, which means jugular vein in Arabic, is trying to fill this gap, integrating some of the largest supply chains in Pakistan and working with around 70 of the biggest corporations like Coca-Cola, Standard Chartered Bank, Dawlance, Meezan Bank, SereneAir, Colgate Palmolive and National Foods. 'We're hoping that we will be now quadrupling these numbers in the first few years to come,' said Ahsan, referring to the over $3 billion in payments Haball has processed and more than $140 million in financing it has disbursed to date. Haball has not tapped even two percent of Pakistan's supply chain financing potential that ranges from $10 billion to $25 billion, according to reports from the Asian Development Bank and International Finance Corporation. Lamenting that businesses were still making their payments through cash or open cheques, Ahsan said supply chain financing was a 'highly underserved space' in Pakistan which was lagging far behind regional peers. 'The outstanding SME financing portfolio in the country is close to $550 billion rupees and State Bank intends to double this in the next three years along with bringing about 200,000 new bank borrowers,' said the chief executive, adding that the deployment of SME supply chain financing was very rapid and could help Pakistan improve its SME financing numbers. According to Ahsan, at the close of the current fiscal year, Haball aimed to bring its financial portfolio to about $80 million worth of lines available for strategic financing of the supply chains it served. 'In the next five years, this number can easily cross a billion dollars,' said Ahsan, whose short-term goal is to start operating in Saudi Arabia while chasing the ultimate goal of getting into the functions of an SME bank. On the challenges the company faced, the Haball CEO said the biggest was the 'continuity of policy.' 'Policy changes are so frequent, and the macro environment changes so dramatically that it's very hard for businesses to reorient themselves and stay agile and stay afloat,' he said. 'I can clearly see that a lot of companies within the fintech space or within the tech startup space struggle with economic uncertainties and the downturns and with macroeconomic stability. That is the biggest challenge of the country.'
Arab News
18-04-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Pakistani supply chain fintech aims for carve out beachhead in Saudi Arabia within 12 months
KARACHI: Pakistani supply chain fintech firm Haball will raise funds to expand its business into Saudi Arabia and set up a beachhead operation within the next 12 months, its chief executive officer Omer Bin Ahsan said in an interview this week. Haball announced this month it had raised $52 million to expand its Shariah-compliant supply chain financing and payments services. The funding, led by Zayn VC and Meezan Bank, includes $5 million in equity and $47 million in strategic financing, and will support Haball's growth plans for Pakistan and expansion into the Middle East, starting with Saudi Arabia this year. Haball says it provides Shariah-compliant financing to nearly 8,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as up to 70 multinationals, in addition to digital invoicing, payment collection and tax compliance services. The company has processed over $3 billion in payments and disbursed more than $140 million in financing. Habal is now eying 'complex large economies' like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Turkiye and Egypt to expand its digital supply chain invoicing, payments and financing business as Pakistan's economy stabilizes, with interest rates halving to 12 percent since June and the pace of inflation ebbing last month to a record low of 0.7 percent. 'In the next twelve months, we intend to set up a beachhead operation in Saudi because Saudi is also very nascent in terms of supply chain financing,' Ahsan, who has already made several trips to the Kingdom to secure necessary regulatory permissions, told Arab News in a wide-ranging interview. A beachhead refers to a strategic approach where a company initially focuses on a small, specific market segment, the beachhead, to establish a strong foothold before expanding to broader markets. Having a beachhead operation would enable Haball to understand the market dynamics and the credit culture in Saudi Arabia and allow it to anchor with strong partner banks, large corporations and wholesale distributors who would be the beneficiaries of the platform, Ahsan said. 'Using that commercial operation at a pilot level, then we will be able to scale into a wider play, SMEs financing, business-to-business payments, and obviously the ultimate goal of any large fintech is that, when they are into invoice payments or digital payments or financing, to see how we can get into the investment and treasury function of SME banking,' the CEO added. To expand into Saudi Arabia, Ahsan said the company would have to raise an amount that fit into the costing dynamics and expense outlay of the Kingdom. Haball would also be deploying its technology and the lower-production-cost regime it had built over years in Pakistan to support its operations in Saudi Arabia instead of raising huge amounts of funds. 'The funding requirement would have to be very prudent and would have to be staged in different phases as opposed to raising a large round and making an unnecessary splash that in most cases goes against you,' Ahsan said, declining to disclose the size of the funding as it could impede investor conversations. Speaking about reasons for wanting to enter Saudi Arabia, the Haball CEO said it was a mature market in terms of credit culture, but SME and supply chain financing still remained 'underserved.' 'Looking at Saudi Arabia's GDP and the non-oil component of the GDP [approximately 52 percent] and then trimming it down to the supply chains that serve the large manufacturer, retail, wholesale, all of that, it's of a significant size … perhaps parallel or comparable to the size of the total economy of Pakistan. So that's a very good opportunity for a company such as ours to enter that space.' Ahsan said the company was also eyeing the Saudi market as it was 'Shariah-first.' 'And that product that we've built for supply chain financing is indigenously Islamic with multiple Islamic variants.' The company was in general eyeing 'complex economies' with large populations and wide geography for a large distribution operation 'because that's where digital supply chain financing is very meaningful.' 'So countries like Saudi Arabia, countries like Turkiye, countries like Iraq, countries like Egypt, they're important for us as jurisdictions where this product can have a meaningful impact.' The game plan was to enter into Gulf markets where the prevailing Islamic finance ecosystem and private debt market was mainly led by big banks. 'The agility of deploying supply chain financing is where the fintechs come in. Our disbursement times are three seconds, not three days,' he said, terming it a 'big advantage' for Haball which would aim for 100 percent digitization into the integrated supply chains of Gulf markets to ensure rapid deployment of Islamic finance. 'Rapid deployment is the differentiator between us and any traditional institution,' said the CEO. 'CONTINUITY OF POLICY' Supply chain finance in Pakistan is nascent but is expected to be worth over $9 billion, driven by the severe financing gap faced by the country's SMEs, less than 5 percent of which can access financing from commercial banks. Habal, which means jugular vein in Arabic, is trying to fill this gap, integrating some of the largest supply chains in Pakistan and working with around 70 of the biggest corporations like Coca-Cola, Standard Chartered Bank, Dawlance, Meezan Bank, SereneAir, Colgate Palmolive and National Foods. 'We're hoping that we will be now quadrupling these numbers in the first few years to come,' said Ahsan, referring to the over $3 billion in payments Haball has processed and more than $140 million in financing it has disbursed to date. Haball has not tapped even two percent of Pakistan's supply chain financing potential that ranges from $10 billion to $25 billion, according to reports from the Asian Development Bank and International Finance Corporation. Lamenting that businesses were still making their payments through cash or open cheques, Ahsan said supply chain financing was a 'highly underserved space' in Pakistan which was lagging far behind regional peers. 'The outstanding SME financing portfolio in the country is close to $550 billion rupees and State Bank intends to double this in the next three years along with bringing about 200,000 new bank borrowers,' said the chief executive, adding that the deployment of SME supply chain financing was very rapid and could help Pakistan improve its SME financing numbers. According to Ahsan, at the close of the current fiscal year, Haball aimed to bring its financial portfolio to about $80 million worth of lines available for strategic financing of the supply chains it served. 'In the next five years, this number can easily cross a billion dollars,' said Ahsan, whose short-term goal is to start operating in Saudi Arabia while chasing the ultimate goal of getting into the functions of an SME bank. On the challenges the company faced, the Haball CEO said the biggest was the 'continuity of policy.' 'Policy changes are so frequent, and the macro environment changes so dramatically that it's very hard for businesses to reorient themselves and stay agile and stay afloat,' he said. 'I can clearly see that a lot of companies within the fintech space or within the tech startup space struggle with economic uncertainties and the downturns and with macroeconomic stability. That is the biggest challenge of the country.'
Zawya
09-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Pakistan fintech Haball secures $52mln to fund entry into GCC
Pakistan start-up Haball, a provider of Shariah-compliant financing to SMEs and multinationals, has secured $52 million in funding to support its expansion into the GCC region. The supply chain financing and payments fintech, which is set to enter Saudi Arabia this year and is looking at other markets like the UAE and Qatar, raised the capital in a pre-Series A round comprising equity investment and bank financing. The $5 million equity component was led by Zayn VC, a venture capital firm in Pakistan, with participation from private investors in Saudi Arabia, Majlis Advisory SPV, angel investors and a business conglomerate. The financing component, valued at $47 million, was provided by Pakistan's Islamic lender Meezan Bank Limited. 'The proceeds will support Haball in consolidating its market leadership in Pakistan and drive a targeted expansion into the GCC,' the company said. The company is scheduled to open a regional office in Saudi Arabia in 2025. It is also exploring other markets in the Middle East, as well as Asia. (Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria )
Express Tribune
08-04-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
Pakistani fintech Haball secures $52m funding
Listen to article Haball, a Pakistani fintech firm, raised $52 million to expand its shariah-compliant supply chain financing and payments services, the company said on Tuesday. The funding, led by Zayn VC and Meezan Bank, includes $5 million in equity and $47 million in strategic financing, and will support Haball's growth plans for Pakistan, the company said in a statement. The money will also help Haball's expansion into the Middle East, starting with Saudi Arabia this year, it added. "Supply chain finance in Pakistan is nascent but is expected to be worth over $9 billion; driven by the severe financing gap faced by the country's SMEs – less than 5% can access financing from commercial banks," the company statement said. Islamic banking and finance has been growing rapidly in Pakistan, the world's second most populous Muslim country, with assets reaching Rs9,689 billion ($34.54 billion) at the end of June 2024, according to the Quarterly Islamic Banking Bulletin released by the State Bank of Pakistan. The market share of assets and deposits of the Islamic banking sector in the overall banking industry stood at 18.8% and 22.7% respectively. The central bank has a target of 30% of overall banking assets and deposits to be Islamic by this year, according to its strategic plans for 2023-2028. Haball says it provides shariah-compliant financing to nearly 8,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as multinationals, in addition to digital invoicing, payment collection, and tax compliance services. "Haball has processed over $3 billion in payments and disbursed over $110 million in financing – optimising supply chains across the country," said the firm's founder and CEO Omer bin Ahsan. Islamic finance bans interest payments and pure monetary speculation and can only be used to invest in sharia-compliant assets or portfolios.
Khaleej Times
08-04-2025
- Business
- Khaleej Times
Leading Pakistan fintech secures $52 million pre-series funding
Haball, Pakistan's leading supply chain financing and payments fintech, raises a $52 million pre-Series A funding round comprising equity investment and a strategic financing allocation. The round's equity component of $5 million was led by Zayn VC - Pakistan's premier venture capital firm. Other investors included Majlis Advisory SPV; several leading private investors in KSA; angel investors, and a prominent business conglomerate. The strategic financing component ($47 million) was provided by Meezan Bank Limited, Pakistan's first and largest Islamic bank, rated AAA/A-1+. The announcement follows a deliberate strategy of responsible fundraising by the company since its 2017 inception. The proceeds will support Haball in consolidating its market leadership in Pakistan and drive a targeted expansion into the GCC – responding to the clear market demand for Shariah-compliant SME-focused digital financial services. Supply chain finance in Pakistan is nascent but is expected to be worth over $9 billion; driven by the severe financing gap faced by the country's SMEs – less than 5 per cent can access financing from commercial banks. Haball will enter the Saudi market in 2025 - to service SMEs and unlock millions in growth opportunities for the kingdom's companies. A regional office will also be opened in the Kingdom. The Company is also exploring additional market entries across the Middle East; such as in the UAE and Qatar; and Asia. Omer bin Ahsan, Founder and CEO of Haball, commented: 'Pakistan's supply chain has been ripe for an efficient, transparent solution to overcome major gaps in the country's business payments and supply chain financing eco-system. Widespread digitization of financial systems – as offered by Haball – will drive economic growth and financial inclusion; imperative for SMEs' success across Pakistan. We also look forward to responding to the significant demand in the GCC for shariah-compliant and SME-focused digital financial services, beginning with our market entry to Saudi Arabia this year. Further international expansion into markets across the Middle East and Asia – meeting the needs for Islamic finance – also remains a long-term ambition.' Haball provides Shariah-compliant financing to SMEs and multinationals, streamlining transactions for businesses via an end-to-end solution incorporating payment collection, digital invoicing, tax compliance, and financing. Already a market leader for supply chain focused financial services in Pakistan; Haball has processed over $3 billion in payments and disbursed over $110 million in financing – optimizing supply chains across the country. Customers include nearly 8,000 SMEs across Pakistan, across verticals, and multinationals such as Coca-Cola. Haball has worked closely with regulators, becoming the first Pakistan fintech to receive a license from the Federal Board of Revenue for digital invoicing. It was also selected by the State Bank as a multi-bank supply chain financing platform, and is on track to become a regulated payment initiation service provider with access to Raast - Pakistan's first instant payment system. Syed Tanveer Hussain, Group Executive Corporate, Commercial & Investment Banking at Meezan Bank, said: 'Our collaboration with Haball represents a shared vision to strengthen Pakistan's financial infrastructure - unlocking opportunities for SMEs and enhancing the resilience of supply chains, contributing to the broader economic development of the country.' Faisal Aftab, Founder and Managing Partner at Zayn VC, said: 'Our investment in Haball aligns with our vision to support innovative financial solutions that have a global impact. With the GCC region's increasing focus on strengthening supply chain ecosystems, we see tremendous potential for Haball to expand its proven model and address critical financing needs.'
